Next, select a widget, choose a size, and tap Add Widget. Apple recently gave you a new way to personalize your iPhone. With widgets, you can see helpful information right from your home screen or lock screen.
How to add widgets to Today View
Add some cool-looking custom widgets, and replace your apps with custom icons, just for a good measure. For example, you can create a widget that shows you the date, your daily steps, upcoming appointments, and your iPhone’s battery life, all in a single widget. Plus, Widgeridoo has support for fetching JSON URLs, so you can display news feeds in widgets as well.
It will be instantly added to the bottom of the Enabled Widgets list. Do this for every widget that you want to add. You need iOS 14 or later to use Smart Stacks or create your own widget stacks. If there’s not enough room for a new widget, you can tap the Remove button to remove a widget and make room for the one you want to add. Now, go to the “My Widgets” tab and tap the “Add (Size) Widget” for the size of the widget you want to create. In this example, we will create a Medium widget.
Just follow steps 1-2, then tap Widget Suggestions to turn it on. Repeat the steps above for every app icon you want you customize. You how to buy alchemy pay can then add the original apps to a different folder or home screen and hide that home screen. Whenever you click on your new custom icons, Shortcuts will redirect you to the app you assigned. For detailed steps, read our guide on how to use custom app icons on iPhone.
From here, you can change the alignment, font, the background color, and the foreground color. In this example, we’re going with “Distance Today.” Lastly, go to the “Background Color” section.
You should see your customized widget on your iPhone home screen. The steps above transport layer security tls protocol overview work for making all kinds of widgets, and there is no limit to how many widgets you can make with Widgetsmith. Keep in mind this will only work if the size widget you added reflects the size widget you customized in the Widgetsmith app. Press and hold in an empty part of the iPhone home screen and select the “+” button.
iOS 17 interactive widgets are a great time-saver — here’s how to use them
Everything from a Harry Potter theme, to Animal Crossing theme has been tried out. You can create a stack of widgets if you want to save space or if there’s one widget you’ll only want to use occasionally. IPads also supports widgets but a bit differently.
iOS 14 basics: how to add widgets to your iPhone’s home screen
Switch to the Medium size (or the size of the widget that you created) and tap the “Add Widget” button. Once you have customized the widget, tap the “Done” button. From the list, select the custom widget you just created. At present, only the Reminders widget lets you manage lists, like the various to-dos you have pending. Find the Reminders widget on your lock screen or home screen. You can access the widgets in Today View by swiping to the right from your lock screen.
Widgetsmith provides you with a couple of templates that you can customize. If you are looking for something more complex, where you can actually create different layouts in a widget, try the block-based Widgeridoo app. Traditionally, the iPhone home screen is thought of as something that’s not customizable. But thanks to home screen widgets, you can now put virtually anything on your home screen. Here’s how to create custom widgets on your iPhone.
- As part of my iOS 17 hands-on time, I’ve profiled other top time-saving iOS 17 features that you can try out as well.
- The Widgetsmith app lets you create widgets for display time, date, calendar, reminders, weather, health stats, tides, astronomy, and photos.
- Presumably, other widgets will follow suit, whether they’re for Apple’s built-in apps or for third-party apps.
- However, you can only add up to 10 widgets to the same stack.
- But to customize and add widgets to your home screen, you’ll have to upgrade to the $3.99 Pro plan (it’s a one-time purchase).
To save space on your iPhone what is margin trading and how to use it to become more profitable home screen, you can “stack” widgets by tapping and holding a widget and selecting Edit Home Screen. Then drag a widget on top of another widget of the same size. Once you have the widgets nailed down, it’s time to customize those app icons. To do this, all you need is an image file (square and around 512 x 512 resolution) and the Shortcuts app.
We’ll show you two types of interactive widgets — ones that control playback and ones that let you manage items from within a widget. Presumably, other widgets will follow suit, whether they’re for Apple’s built-in apps or for third-party apps. We suspect that will happen after the full version of iOS 17 comes out this fall.
But, don’t worry, it’s going to be worth it! As we mentioned at the top of the article, you’ll have to use the Shortcuts app to create shortcuts with custom images and names to open particular apps. Power users will appreciate the complexity of the Widgeridoo app. Using Widgeridoo, you can have different data or information in different blocks, all in the same widget. You’ll be taken back on your widgets screen, with your new widgets and brand new functionality added to your lock screen and Home screen.
Now, scroll over to the Medium widget and tap the “Add Widget” button. Select the Widgetsmith app from the list of widgets. In the “Style” tab, you can see all the different styles for date widgets.
We’ve got other iOS 17 tips and tricks such as how to set up camera shortcuts in iOS 17 and how to set up Standby mode. We can also show you how to use the Check In feature that’s a part of the changes to iOS 17 Messages. An interactive widget will have a button for controlling playback. Tap that button to play or pause a song, podcast or audio book.
Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide. He’s been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He’s been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he’s been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques.